[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 2 (Monday, January 18, 1999)]
[Pages 58-59]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7163--Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 1999

January 15, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    January 15 would have marked the 70th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr., a man of great vision and moral purpose whose dream for our 
Nation set into motion such powerful, sweeping changes that their impact 
is still being felt today. While he was taken from us too soon, we still 
have with us the gifts of his vision, convictions, eloquence, and 
example. We still hear the echo of his voice telling us that ``Life's 
most persistent and urgent question is, `What are you doing for others?' 
''
    We know what Dr. King did for others. He energized and mobilized a 
generation of Americans, black and white, to join in the struggle for 
civil rights, to respond to violence, hatred, and unjust incarceration 
with the spirit of peace, love, and righteousness. He taught us that we 
could not claim America as the land of justice, freedom, and equality as 
long as millions of our citizens continually and systematically faced 
discriminatory and oppressive treatment. He challenged us to recognize 
that the fundamental rights of all Americans are forever interconnected, 
for ``we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a 
single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all 
indirectly.''
    Martin Luther King, Jr., awakened America's conscience to the 
immorality of racism. He was the driving force behind the passage of the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair 
Housing Act of 1968. For African Americans, this landmark legislation 
meant that the opportunity for a quality education would no longer be 
impossible, the levers of the voting booth would no longer be out of 
reach, and the purchase of a dream home would no longer be unattainable. 
Millions of Americans--of every race and background and culture--live 
brighter lives today because of Martin Luther King, Jr.

[[Page 59]]

    Dr. King's dream of unity for America did not die with him. Today, 
as our Nation becomes increasingly multiracial and multiethnic, his 
compelling vision is more important than ever, and the means for 
realizing it are now within our reach. This past year, as part of my 
Initiative on Race, Americans across the country participated in 
thousands of honest and open conversations about race in a sincere 
effort to heal our divisions and move toward genuine reconciliation. We 
learned much about the roots of prejudice; but more important, we 
learned much about how to overcome it. In community after community, in 
every field of endeavor from sports and education to business and 
religion, we discovered organizations and programs that have succeeded 
in bridging gaps between people of different races and cultures. These 
promising practices offer us both realistic guidelines for everyday 
action and genuine hope that we can respect one another's differences 
and embrace the values that unite us.
    Now it is our turn to answer the question, ``What are you doing for 
others?'' As part of our response, each year since 1994 we have made the 
Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday a national day of service, a 
day on which to honor Dr. King's legacy through service projects across 
our country. Instead of taking a day off, millions of our fellow 
Americans respond to the needs of their communities, through activities 
like tutoring children, sheltering the homeless, making schoolyards 
safer, or making public parks more inviting.
    Let us make this year's observance the beginning of a broader effort 
to improve our communities and the lives of our fellow Americans, to 
make the personal choices and take the personal actions that will bridge 
the gaps--racial and otherwise--that keep us from becoming the people we 
were meant to be. Working together, joining our hearts and our hands, we 
will succeed in building One America for the 21st century and in 
fulfilling the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Monday, 
January 18, 1999, as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday. I 
call upon all Americans to observe this occasion and to honor Dr. King's 
legacy with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day 
of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 19, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
January 20.